In a NY Times op-ed, Timothy Garton Ash argues America is overlooking European power:

Why is it that Americans do not understand the power of the European Union? Is it because they are simply not well informed by reports from Brussels and other European capitals? Or is it because, as citizens of the world’s last truly sovereign nation-state, Americans - and especially American conservatives - find it difficult to acknowledge the contribution of a transnational organization based on supranational law? It’s as if they can conceive of power only in the old-fashioned terms of a classical nation-state.

Robert Kagan describes the difference between America and Europe as the difference between power and weakness - American power, that is, and European weakness. This description is sustainable only if power is measured in terms of military strength. In the way that some American conservatives talk about the European Union, I hear an echo of Stalin’s famous question about the Vatican’s power: how many divisions does the pope have? But the pope defeated Stalin in the end. This attitude overlooks the dimensions of European power that are not to be found on the battlefield.

Ash makes four arguments in favor of European power overcoming the American superpower:

1. The European approach to combating terrorism.

2. The economic standing of the EU.

3. The appeal of European culture and society.

4. The ability of the EU for continued growth by admitting new nation states to the union.

Stephen Bainbridge effectively counters Ash’s arguments.

If Ash were right, and the EU really were equal in power to the US, I would argue that that would be cause for great concern. I’m not convinced that the EU is a force for good within its own borders, let alone in the wider world, where appeasement and coddling of dictators seems to be the order of the day. The good news therefore is that the EU is not equal to the US in power. The even better news is that the trendlines are in our favor; not theirs.

We have seen how the EU responds to terrorism and the regimes that foster terrorism in its approach to the Madrid bombing, Theo van Gogh’s murder, and the Iranian nuclear issue. Additionally, Theo van Gogh’s murder provides insight into the ability of European nations to absorb people of non-European descent. Van Gogh was murdered by a Dutch Islamic radical, the child of immigrants. Even with all of the benefits of Dutch citizenship and living in the midst of European culture and society, the murderer still felt that he needed to respond to van Gogh’s affront to Islam with violence. When was the last time you heard of an American citizen murdering a prominent filmmaker or writer because of an affront to his religious principles? Until Europe can prove that it can successfully integrate its immigrants and their offspring into the greater whole of European society, Europe won’t be able to continue to grow through admitting new members. Nor does its society have any special power over those outside Europe, when those of non-European descent in Europe reject that culture and choose barbarism instead.

For some images that are truly out of this world, check out the multimedia gallery on NASA’s Cassini-Huygens website. Below I’ve posted a few of my favorites, although there are many, many more spectacular images.

Dione and Saturn
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Nature’s Canvas
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Titan’s Many Layers
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

CNET News.com has more information on the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moons.

UPDATE: James Joyner has posted a link to the European Space Agency’s Cassini-Huygens site with more information on the Huygens probe which will be deployed from the Cassini orbiter on December 25 and begin its 22 day journey to Titan.

If these allegations are true, then these men need to prosecuted to the full extent of the law. At a minimum, these men should be removed from the Senate Intelligence Committee and have their security clearance revoked until cleared by an investigation.

(From LGF)

Victor Davis Hanson looks at why liberals have lost credibility, and offers them some advice on how to regain it.

There is much talk of post-election reorganization and rethinking among demoralized liberals, especially in matters of foreign policy. They could start by accepting that the demise of many of their cherished beliefs and institutions was not the fault of others. More often, the problems are fundamental flaws in their own thinking – such as the ends of good intentions justifying the means of expediency and untruth, and forced equality being a higher moral good than individual liberty and freedom. Whether we call such notions “political correctness” or “progressivism,” the practice of privileging race, class, and gender over basic ethical considerations has earned the moralists of the Left not merely hypocrisy, but virtual incoherence.

Whoever poisoned Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko really wanted him dead. The level of dioxin in his blood was 6000 times greater than the normal amount, the second highest recorded level of dioxin poisoning in a person. Yushchenko is convinced someone from the Ukrainian government is responsible for his poisoning.

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko said Thursday that he was sure he was poisoned by the Ukrainian government and believes it most likely happened at a dinner he had with the country’s top security service officials.

Yushchenko’s comments, made in an interview with The Associated Press, were the first time he pinpointed when and where he believed he was poisoned with dioxin. He said it likely happened at a Sept. 5 dinner with the head of the Ukrainian security service, Ihor Smeshko, and his deputy, Volodymyr Satsyuk.

“That was the only place where no one from my team was present and no precautions were taken concerning the food,” he said. “It was a project of political murder, prepared by the authorities.”

Slightly off topic, OpinionJounal has an piece detailing the religious aspect of the Orange Revolution, which is inspired by the candidate himself.

But there is another side to Ukraine’s peaceful revolution. Interspersed with earnest youths, families and grandmothers who braved subzero temperatures at daily rallies for Mr. Yushchenko were nuns bearing orange sashes, proto-deacons and priest-monks.

The scene at Kiev’s Independence Square was part political rally, part rock concert and part fireworks display. But it was also a religious experience. Each day’s protest opened with prayer. On weekends, religious leaders held liturgies and prayer services for Orthodox Christians (whose adherents represent more than 60% of the population), Eastern Rite Catholics (10%), Protestants, evangelicals, Jews and Muslims. (Some 25% of Ukrainians say they are nonreligious.)

Mr. Yushchenko, who typically ends his speeches with “Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Ukrainian People, and Glory to the Lord, Our God,” is a devout Orthodox Christian from northeastern Ukraine who regularly takes confession and communion. His faith is reinforced by his American-born wife, Katya Chumachenko, who last week told the Chicago Tribune: “We’re strong believers in God, and we strongly believe that God has a place for each one of us in this world, and that he has put us in this place for a reason.”

The article goes on to draw a parallel between President Bush and Mr. Yushchenko, in the manner in which they both handle personal faith in public. The support Yushchenko has received comes from people of many different religious backgrounds and persuasions. In particular, Yushchenko’s emphasis on ethics and non-corrupt government have resonated with the people of Ukraine. So I guess, “Moral Values” will be a deciding factor in this election as well.

UPDATE: Further tests have confirmed the amount of dioxin in Viktor Yushchenko’s blood, and that it was tetrachlorodibenzoparadioxin (TCDD). Ironically, TCDD was used to create Agent Orange.

Also, Captain Ed notes some saber rattling from Yushchenko’s opponent Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

One of Fidel Castro’s granddaughters has become a citizen of the United States:

In an ironic twist to the always tense U.S.-Cuban relations, a granddaughter of one of America’s perennial enemies pledged allegiance to the United States at a giant citizenship ceremony in Miami Beach on Wednesday.

I wonder how Castro is taking the news.

Yesterday, my wife called me to check out an email that was sent to her by a family member. The email alleged that telemarketers would start calling cell phone numbers on January 1 unless the number was registered on the Do Not Call list. Naturally, it turned out to be a hoax. CNET News.com also has a report on the hoax.

A hoax e-mail circulating the Internet has millions of Americans scurrying to add their cell phones to a national Do Not Call list to avoid telemarketers.

The e-mail warns recipients that telemarketers will have new rights to call cell phones beginning Jan. 1, if people don’t request anonymity by Wednesday. In the last week, 9.5 million people registered with the Do Not Call list, many as a result of the warning, according to its governing agency the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC typically fields up to 200,000 requests in a week, according to FTC spokeswoman Jen Schwartzman.

“People are panicked, and I think the only thing they got right in the e-mail is our Web site registration information,” Schwartzman said.

However, while looking up details on the hoax, I came across this interesting story (second item).

Shortly after music director Nathan Robinson arrived at the Guitar Center in Grossmont Center mall to buy new equipment, in walked a man in his 20s carrying the church’s Yamaha keyboard. Robinson recognized the fellow as someone who’d stopped by the church about three months earlier to inquire about its program.

…

While awaiting police, an employee tested the keyboard and detained the seller. As soon as the La Mesa police arrived, the man bolted out of the store and blended into a sea of holiday shoppers – but he conveniently left behind his driver’s license and thumb print.

…

When the choir arrived for rehearsal that evening, the equipment was back in its place and ready for service. The thief, no doubt, was wishing he’d gone to a different music store.

JibJab.com has a new subject: Santa Claus.

Plus they are promoting Operation Give.

Diggers Realm has a roundup of reaction in the blogosphere to Hillary’s stance on immigration reform. Digger also says a big “thank you” to Hillary for bringing this issue out in the open. I agree with him that this issue is important enough that we should be encouraged that someone is taking it seriously, even if that person isn’t a candidate I would naturally support.

While I probably would never vote for Hillary Clinton (imagine if she was running against Charlie Rangel as the Republican nominee chortle) the fact that she has dropped this issue wholeheartedly into the middle of these people who are taking a lame stance on it makes me smile. Just maybe these issue dodgers will actually look at the issue as a serious threat to their current positions and do something about it.

As most of the Citizens in this country want something to be done about illegal immigration there should be a big shout from the mountaintop that Hillary Clinton’s comments do actually mirror the majority in this country. Whether we would vote for her or not the people who won’t address it need to get off their butts and take a stance.

I am all for Hillary talking this issue up. And I doubt she’ll do anything about it if she were to be elected, but her talking about it places this issue in the public arena, which just might start some meaningful dialogue. This will force those who would rather ignore it to it to start giving this issue some critical attention.

Related posts:

1. More on the Conservative Edition of Hillary Clinton

2. Hillary Makes Her Move

3. Peggy Noonan vs. Hillary Clinton

From Instapundit, I came across a post by Colby Cosh about Firefox, the recently released browser from the Mozilla Organization and its representation among the readers of the blogosphere.

The latest public independent data show Firefox’s share of the browser market growing fast–from 3% to 4% between November and December. (Þ: Taylor.) Is this surprising news? It is to this Firefox convert, not because 4% seems like a lot, but because my own browser-share figures have had Firefox running in double digits for some months now. Check out the browser-share numbers at Instapundit, which should be similar (they vary from hour to hour). It seems like Firefox users are overrepresented amongst people who read weblogs, who may be relatively savvy and Internet-immersed. Internet Explorer, of course, can last a long time as the Browser for People Who Don’t Know Any Better. (AOL, which occupies a similar position amongst ISPs, is still chugging along.) But Microsoft must at least be a little bit unnerved about all this.

Judging by this story, at least publicly, Microsoft seems to consider Firefox a nuisance more than a threat.

His post then prompted a response from a web developer, who’s over the hype surrounding Firefox.

I think I’ve brought this up before, but there’s nothing “light years ahead” about Firefox. It’s just Mozilla with a precious logo and some browbeating marketing behind it. It’s perfectly fine for standard web browsing, but what isn’t these days? The browser reached functional maturity years ago and all that has been done since then is feature twiddling and graphical polish. I find Firefox easy to develop for, but serious stuff – anything really complicated – is still easier in IE.

Oh, and here’s the serious footwork Microsoft would have to do to “catch up”:

1. Put the Explorer control in a tabbed shell

The end. Well by god I don’t know if the boys in Redmond are capable.

Apparently, it’s not that easy:

For architectural reasons, it turns out you can’t just add tabs via an add-on into the IE app itself. You can get tabs by running a different app like those other browsers that build on the IE platform, so it’s a nice option for people.

We’ve looked at whether you can add tabs through a browser helper object or some other way of extending IE, and it turns out you can’t. Then of course the Web developer stuff is also that core platform changes and wouldn’t be deemed an add-on. The challenge there, as we have been kind of public on our blogs when discussing with Web developers, is backward compatibility.

Now, I would agree that some of the hype for Firefox is overblown, but I really do think that it is a better browser for me for a number of reasons:

1. Tabbed Browsing: I love this feature, and I find that when I am forced to use a browser that doesn’t have it (Internet Explorer) that I miss it and quickly become frustrated by not having it, but if, like the developer I quoted above, you don’t like it then fine. There are other reasons for me that make Firefox superior to IE.

2. Security: Just removing ActiveX makes Firefox more secure. Does it lose some functionality? Sure, but nothing that I have not been able to live without, and if I really want to see some ActiveX widget, then I can always use IE to view it. And I am not really crazy about a browser component having system level access to my operating system, anyway. One point in Microsoft’s favor on this issue is the inclusion of an ActiveX blocker in the latest enhancements to IE included with Windows XP Service Pack 2. But to get those security enhancements, if you aren’t using Windows XP, it’s going to cost you.

3. Live Bookmarks: This useful innovation has changed the way I read blogs. Basically, a live bookmark is a bookmark (in IE, that is a favorite) which contains the current headlines from a weblog’s RSS or Atom feeds. I find this to be a handy way for me to quickly scan the headlines on many weblogs. I really hadn’t found an RSS reader which I liked, but when this was introduced, once I started to use it, I found it positively changed the way I read blogs. Suddenly, syndication feeds were much more useful to me.

4. Web Standards: I admit that this is an esoteric reason for most of the general public, but to web developers it is a big deal. When Internet Explorer 4 came out, I switched from Netscape 4 because developing for IE was easier and it supported more of the standards that had been established at the time for web development. But Microsoft has not kept pace with the industry in this regard, so when the original Mozilla browser was released, I switched and I started using Firefox when version 0.2 was released. I haven’t looked back. Unfortunately, IE is the market leader and so I have to conform my work to it and all of its quirks, just as I had to conform my work to Netscape Navigator’s quirks when it was heavily used on campus.

Not to be too hard on Microsoft, I do believe that the programmers who develop IE want to make it more secure and improve its standards support, but are hamstrung to a certain degree by keeping updates to the browser backwards-compatible. And they are looking for feedback about IE, and if you truly do like IE then by all means use it. But don’t try to sell me on the line that it is as good as other browsers because for me the evidence points elsewhere.

UPDATE: Uh-oh! More hype for Firefox now that the New York Times has run an ad for Firefox. I have posted before on the Firefox ad campaign.